Commonly, lamp shades are manufactured in a formed or erected condition, prior to being shipped. These lamp shades require considerable and inordinate storage and shipping space compared to the weight of the materials. This is particularly evident in the case of cylindrical or box-shaped shades. While tapered or frustoconical shaped shades may be nested or stacked, the nest or stack of shades still requires an inordinate amount of space. Moreover, shades having decorative covers with an irregular surface, such as with trim strips at the upper or lower or both edges of the shade cover, may be damaged and the strips torn during the nesting and unnesting operations.
Modern merchandising practices often require items, such as lamp shades, to be shipped and stored in individual packages for convenient delivery to the customer. Lamp shades which are preassembled or manufactured in the erected conditions cannot be inexpensively stored or shipped in individual containers.
Numerous attempts have been made to construct collapsible or knock-down shades that can be stored and shipped compactly and then assembled by the consumer. However, many of the shades previously proposed depend upon an outer, relatively rigid material for the structural integrity of the erected shade and thus limit the shape and decorative features of the shade. Examples of shades of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,142,446; 3,764,801; 3,787,676 and 4,055,760. Attempts have also been made to provide a collapsible lamp shade in which the erecting operation requires adhesive strips. Examples of such attempts are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,142,446 and 4,055,760. However, the necessity of the consumer having to align parts of the shade and apply adhesive or adhesive strips in the erecting operation detracts from the merchandisability of the item. For these and other resons, the knock-down shades prior to the present invention have not attained commercial acceptability.